Van Helsing

Van Helsing, a rather strange character. Originally, in Dracula by Bram Stoker, he was just a slightly bonkers ginger Dutch guy into cutting off chicks' heads and stuffing their mouths with garlic. A hypnotist evangelist with a pocket full of Communion wafers. But good old Hammer Horror cheerfully ignored a lot of this as Peter Cushing took on the man.
The character was distorted still further by Cosgrove House when they produced their incontestably brilliant series Duckula. Although still vaguely Dutch (or at least Central European), Von 'Goosewing' was a feathered Sherlock Holmes fetish…